How Important Are The Details?

This was a great question that was asked and discussed in this article. It was a pleasure to read this.

Cathy Horyn/The New York TimesA look from spring 2012 Narciso Rogriguez collection.

Maybe a year ago — or was it longer? — Prabal Gurung answered Demi Moore’s Twitter post with his own. Until then, Mr. Gurung, an up-and-coming designer who started his company two years ago, had been on the Twitter fence. He really didn’t know what it was and, as he said, “it seemed too much about yourself.” But after replying to Ms. Moore, he quickly got 500 followers. Today he has 32,604 followers, and as he calculated the payoff from the social media network, says, “It’s a business.” It has helped him build his brand.

I had come down to Mr. Gurung’s small studio on West 38th Street to preview his spring collection, something I love doing but seem to have less and less time for, perhaps because I’m tweeting. I’m awfully busy, but so was Mother Hubbard.

After Mr. Gurung showed me a few things, including a custom flower print he created with a printmaker in England, I dropped by Joseph Altuzarra’s showroom on West 40th Street. Over the years, I’ve learned not to draw any conclusions about a collection from mood boards or snapshots of individual looks. The clothes appear horribly flat, the models like sentries of a cult. Instead you have to look at the actual garments, and then wait to see how the designer and stylist put everything together on the runway.

Mr. Altuzarra showed me a dress and a padded jacket that had elements of perforated leather. It was obvious that he had really thought about how to integrate components from last season (parkas, for instance) into a spring wardrobe. Yet at the same time, when I saw the subtle effects of the leather in a jersey dress, I wondered how many people on Saturday night — when Mr. Altuzarra shows his collection — will notice the details or be able to identify the fabric as the models zoom past and iPhones click away. Mr. Gurung was particularly proud of a silk print jacket in his collection; he knew how hard it was to make the complicated pattern match at the seams (the D’Angelo factory in New York made the jacket). But, again, how many people will notice how perfectly the pattern lines up?

This has always been a problem — stuff flies past and you miss the details. Also, the roles of designers have been expanding for decades, well beyond the actual making of clothes. They’re celebrities, entrepreneurs. Indeed, the public has no trouble accepting that many designers are not designers at all.

But on Thursday, when I arrived at Lincoln Center and saw rows of writers tapping away at their stations, I sensed a paradox of the modern runway. Despite the amount of information flowing, we may actually know less about the real work — the making of clothes. Similarly, news reports enter a kind of vacuum. If I hadn’t asked several people for a reaction to the conviction of John Galliano on anti-Semitism charges in Paris, I doubt I would have heard a peep all day. Generally, these people thought the ruling was correct, and that Mr. Galliano could repair his career. “I will bet that he will make a comeback,” Howard Socol, the former Barneys chief and now a consultant, said before the Richard Chai show. “This happens in sports and politics all the time.”

I’m quite sure that Narciso Rodriguez doesn’t qualify as an avant-garde designer, but during a visit to his studio later in the day, I certainly wondered if a skillful eye and hand might be radical. He had created a group of cardigan jackets in linen with built-out shoulders and wand sleeves and almost no lapels. He had supplied a small but intelligent solution to contemporary tailoring. But you’ll have to see for yourself next week, when he shows.

Article Source: From On The Runway - NyTImes.com

I think as a society, especially in the world of fashion, we tend to loose sight of the inspiration and details that go in to the creation. It's almost as if we just accept the fact that it's there. We forget that someone spent countless hours putting in the elbow grease; not to mention the courage it takes to place yourself in such a vulnerable situation.

It was also interesting how the author pointed out that as information and technology has influenced the industry, it's evolved the designer.  "Indeed, the public has no trouble accepting that many designers are not designers at all." I am actually OK with this idea. 

To Relate it to hair....

I think as stylists, especially salon owners, the evolution of our industry has forced us to evolve. If your a salon owner, your hardly an artist/designer. You often have to take that hat off and put your entrepreneurship hat on. As a salon owner it takes business, leadership and artistic skills to run a successful business. The hair is not enough.

I loved the correlation of this article to our industry!